


The Scene Between - Touring the TARDIS

by goaskjane



Series: Doctor Who Series 13 [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-10
Updated: 2012-12-10
Packaged: 2017-11-20 18:24:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/588347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goaskjane/pseuds/goaskjane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the Doctor and Molly take a tour of the TARDIS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Scene Between - Touring the TARDIS

“So,” Molly asked as she wandered around the control room, “what’s a TARDIS?”

“ _The_ TARDIS,” the Doctor corrected, “stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It’s a time and space machine. And it’s the only one left.”

“That is _so_ cool.” She wound her way around the control table and opened a door on the opposite end of the circular room. Molly found herself in a very posh corridor, all thick carpet and paneled walls, with three doors on either side of her and one at the very end. “May I?” she gestured toward the first door.

“Be my guest,” the Doctor replied. Molly opened the first door; it was a broom cupboard.

“Well that was anticlimactic,” she complained.

“They can’t all be amazing.” The Doctor went to the second left-hand door. “Some things have to be practical when you’re traversing the universe. These are just the rooms I use the most – there’s a guest room behind the third door there if you’d like it.”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to kip with you,” she answered smartly. “We barely know each other.”

“Didn’t stop you from coming home with me.” He winked at Molly as he opened the door behind him and she poked her head inside. It was the Doctor’s library, but it was by far the largest library Molly had ever seen.

The room was cavernous, to make an understatement. And it was all comprised of built-in shelves that seemed to be made of some sort of clean, white marble. There were rows upon rows, so many shelves and corners that Molly knew she could never see it all. Most of the floor space was occupied with red velvet armchairs that looked incredibly comfortable, brass lamps and shiny wooden tables. It was glorious. “Oh my God…”

“Thought you’d like it,” replied the Doctor with a smug tone. “I suppose this is where I should look if I ever lose track of you?”

“That’s a good guess.” Molly took another moment to soak in the beauty of the library; she was tempted to just stay there and let the Doctor go traveling all over time and space by himself. But there had to be so much more to see in this TARDIS of his. “So,” she said, pulling the door closed with some difficulty, “what’s behind the ominous door at the end of the hall?”

“Something ominous.”

“Can I see?”

“Of course. Why do you think I made it so ominous?” The Doctor opened the door at the end of the corridor and Molly stepped into a sort of lift. There were hundreds of buttons in a variety of colors, but none of them were labeled.

“How do you find your way around this place?” she asked. The Doctor reached into his all of his jacket pockets before finally finding what he was looking for in the left inside one. He passed her a neatly folded brochure with the word TARDIS printed across the front in bold lettering. Molly opened it and laughed; it looked just like an amusement park map. She studied it for a moment or two before folding it back up and handing it back.

“Keep it,” he said, “I’ve got extras.”

“No need. Eidetic memory.” Molly tapped her temple wisely before turning back to the wide array of buttons before her. She chose one and the lift lurched to the left, sending Molly and the Doctor flying sideways. “It goes sideways?”

“Of course it does.”

“Who are you, Willy Wonka?” The Doctor laughed a little at that. The lift finally came to a rough halt and the doors opened.

“Cinema – good choice,” he said as they stepped forward.

“Is there a popcorn machine?”

“What do you think?” The Doctor smirked as he pulled a lever on the wall, which was hung with dark velvet panels, and a popcorn machine rose out of the floor behind Molly, surrounded by a counter with about thirty little pumps.

“What are all those?”

“It comes with twenty-six flavors of butter – one for each letter of the alphabet.”

“ _Seriously?_ ”

“Sure. Apple butter, butter butter, cashew butter…. You get the picture.”

“What’s Q?”

“Quinoa butter. It’s not actually as good as it sounds.” Molly laughed and reentered the lift. She considered each of the buttons.

“This is amazing,” she said. “You’ve got everything you could ever need or want. Gym, pool, sewing room, pottery studio, dining room, den, office, nursery, clinic, sauna, aviary, ballroom,” Molly pointed to each one as she named them, growing more and more amused. “Staircase? You’ve got a lift that goes in every direction – what could you _possibly_ need a staircase for?”

“In case the lift breaks down,” the Doctor responded as though Molly were foolish.

“Oh, right, of course,” Molly said sarcastically. “What was I thinking?” She tried a few more buttons, growing more and more awed as she and the Doctor stepped into a seemingly infinite number of rooms. It was truly amazing.

“Well,” said the Doctor, finally pressing the button that would return them to the control room, “how did you find the tour?”

“Not very professional. I want a return on my money.”

“I’ll do you one better,” he said, “I’ll take you to a different planet – how’s that?” He grinned excitedly.

“Sounds like an even exchange to me.” Molly dropped down onto a ratty sofa on the bridge and the Doctor followed suit. “So, Doctor, who are you when you’re at home?” His face clouded over.

“I don’t have a home. Not anymore.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got a TARDIS,” Molly returned. “Who are you when you’re in TARDIS, then?”

“I’m not entirely sure anymore,” he replied pensively. “Sometimes I think I might be a little dangerous. That’s why I like to have someone with me. The last time I was alone I made some bad decisions.”

“You keep saying that,” Molly said. “What sort of bad decisions? Do you kill people or something?”

“Not on purpose.” She nodded, lips pursed. “It’s not too late for me to take you back home, you know?”

“Don’t you dare. You still owe me for that shoddy tour.” He smiled, albeit a little sadly.

“I can’t guarantee your safety, you know. Anything could happen out there.”

“I hope so.”

“Stop that,” the Doctor insisted. “Stop talking like you know what you’re getting into. You don’t. No one ever does. But I get lonely, so I keep taking on humans, and then you all learn eventually, the hard way, that no part of this is easy.”

“Doctor,” Molly said seriously, “I’ve spent my life reading stories about people who get to go on fantastic adventures and see new and dangerous things, but I’ve always just been sitting behind a desk, hiding behind the binding of a novel. I _know_ , in all seriousness, that nothing is going to be like that. I’m just hoping to have some sort of experience that I can talk about later – good or bad – that goes beyond checking in overdue books and asking for people’s library cards.” She took a deep breath. “And even if I die out there, doing something, maybe someone, somewhere, will remember me and how it happened and I won’t be just some insignificant librarian anymore.”

The Doctor put a hand on her knee and Molly looked up to meet his gaze. “I don’t think anyone could ever mistake you for some insignificant librarian after today.” She smiled and he smiled back. Finally, he clapped his hands together and leapt from the sofa, rushing to the control desk in a fit of energy. “Now – I know just where to take you!” He pulled a cord a few times as though starting a lawnmower, punched a few buttons, and stomped down hard on what looked like a car accelerator, setting the TARDIS in wild motion; Molly gripped the arm of the sofa hard as it slid across the bridge in the TARDIS’s mad trajectory, the Doctor shouting at the top of his lungs in excitement.


End file.
